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“Just like I told our team in there, now is not the time to do a lot of talking. It was humbling. I give them a lot of credit. The immaturity of our team showed big time, both physically and just from a performance standpoint. We got overwhelmed. We turn the ball over the first series of the game, they score the first play untouched. I give them credit. Offensively, we really struggled. We struggled with how physical they were across the board. We tried to throw the ball a lot. I thought we actually did do some things throwing the ball. But basically, got overwhelmed. The thing that’s been solid for us was special teams. We gave up a punt return for a touchdown. We gave up a fake punt for a touchdown. Again, the immaturity showed. We have a young guy who should have been rushing from the outside, protecting it and he didn’t. He got burrowed down inside and the kid takes the ball and runs 70 yards for a touchdown. So there’s some things that shouldn’t happen. I take responsibility for that. That’s what it was: We got humbled.”

On Utah State’s four-man defensive front...

“Smart. They came out with four, big, strong dudes in there. And so much more powerful than us on both sides of the ball. They’re a three-man front team but they played four-man front on us. They covered those guards and lined up and played us like I would play us with that personnel. Lined up a played four-man front, played a lot of Cover 3. Really pretty simple, but kind of engulfed us in there. We had a hard time -- hard time -- running the ball. So they went to a four-man front and went after us.”

On the immaturity of the team...

“I’ve said that from day one. We’re a young team. I just think that when you stand there and look out there, there’s some things just from a physical maturity standpoint that they were impressive. But, more than that, I don’t want to put it all on that. Because there’s things that happened that shouldn’t happen from a coaching standout, which is from an execution standpoint.”

On what should have happened defensively with the offense struggling...

“Well, that’s the point. You all know what we are. If we can’t run it successfully, if we can’t run triple-option, run the ball successfully, we have a hard time. Let’s call it what it is. They put the wildcat quarterback in there and took the ball down the length of the field without throwing a pass on us. There’s not many things we can stop. So if we’re out there a lot on defense -- if our offense isn’t controlling the ball -- we’re in dire straits. And that’s what you saw.”

UNM senior running back Kasey Carrier

On whether the result surprised him…

“It did, I thought we would execute better. We had a mistake our first time getting the ball on offense and everything was downhill from there. We know that they are a big team. They came out and played all-around football and beat us.”

On how disappointing this loss was…

“It was very disappointing. We felt like this was a game that we definitely could take. They came out and won the game and we lost in all phases.”

On Utah State switching to four down linemen and whether it was a factor…

“We pretty much prepare for everything. We have been against four-man fronts, three-down fronts, our defense, our count. We have seen it all. We expect teams to change when they play us. They didn’t blitz very much either. It is just in the heat of the game.”

On what the plan is for the bye week…

“Get better this week and be healthy. Some guys are banged up, sore here and there, so we have to take advantage of this week.”

On scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter…

“It felt okay. It was good for the team to show that we can move the ball when we execute, but we had too many mental mistakes all around.”

UNM senior linebacker Dallas Bollema

On the most frustrating part of the game…

“It comes down to an execution standpoint. Once again, not getting off the field on third down hurt us, so this is something we have to build on and get better.”

On how the team plans on using the upcoming bye week…

“We are going to take this loss in, endure it, build upon it, and the bye week will give us time to focus on the next game and keep working to get better.”

On how the team can improve…

“Eliminate the big plays and all around execute.”

On any positives from tonight…

(David)Vega came in late in the game and made some big plays; that is always good to see. Some of the backups on the defense came in there and were also making some good plays, so that is a positive standpoint, but all around we need to pick ourselves up and get better for the next game.

On the outlook for the rest of the season…

“We have five more games and we need four more wins to get to a bowl. The expectations for the seniors are high. We held a team meeting today, got everyone together to just let us know that this is the second half of the season for us and we are definitely not taking it lightly.”

Utah State coach Matt Wells

Opening statement...

“First of all, I thought it was a tremendous team effort by all three sides. We had big plays in the kicking game and almost had another one. I thought the defense shut the run game down and were dominant. We ran the ball. That’s what we said at the before the game, the front seven one both side of the ball had to play well. We had to have some big plays in kicking game happen and it happened. I thought that Dare (Garretson) played really efficient, spread the ball around, was stingy with the ball and went through his reads. I thought he did well.”

On losing the past two weeks...

“Every win is big. It is hard to win games in Division I football. I always say that you can’t go down to Wal-Mart in row 8, third shelf up and pick up a bunch of wins. It’s hard to win and it’s hard to win on the road. Every win is special.”

On Joey (DeMartino)...

“I thought the O-line played really well up front, the tight ends and every different personnel group that we had to play. I’m just so proud of these kids. They have battled and we have changed stuff around and positions on guys. We pulled Wyatt (Houston) out of a redshirt position and I thought he played well. We did a lot of stuff trying to win games. I thought that the kids responded well and I am really happy and proud for them.”

On the defense setting the tone early with the fumble recovery...

“That was huge. It was a shot of adrenaline in the arm and to be able to hand the ball off with 7 points right out of the gate was huge.”

On the defense...

“I think we are solid against the run and we are stingy. We know how to play our gap control. We have good players.”

On special teams and the fake punt…

“It was not a fake punt, they gave it to us. It’s their (the Lobos’) job to contain the punt and that wasn’t on. It was something that the kicker did and we do it in practice all the time and it was not called.”